The worst humanitarian crisis since World War II

Syrian refugee children, who have been living in Jordan with their family for 2.5 years after fleeing the violence in their Syrian hometown of Idlib, sit in front of their family residence in Madaba city July 9, 2015. Photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters

The Syrian refugee crisis is the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. And we think people should know more about it.

Of the 4 million refugees, the vast majority are women and children. And nearly 3 million of those children are out of school with no hope of returning to any formal education.

For this week’s Shortwave, P.J. Tobia interviews Saba Mobasalat from Save the Children. She talks about a little boy who makes a dollar a day crawling into empty diesel tankers to sponge up and sell leftover oil, and she talks about food aid that’s about to run out of funding.

He also interviews Nihad Sarmini in Jordan, who travels into Northern Syria to help child refugees.

“There is a lot of child labor there, and we found out that their work is very dangerous, and actually it’s affecting their mental and physical health,” he said. Click “listen” on the podcast below to learn more.

Editor’s Note: The World Food Program received $65 million from the United States, enabling the agency to continue the food voucher program — albeit at a lower level — for the 440,000 refugees living outside of camps in Jordan, the agency announced on July 31.

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